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What do you count as a hypo?

I

isjoberg

Well-Known Member
Messages
268
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I feel slightly ridiculous asking as I've been diabetic for so long, but I was recently reading a thread where people said they were having 2-5 hypos a week? Are you counting a hypo as an episode of low blood sugar (e.g. 3.5 quick snack and continue as normal) or as something which takes far more out of your day (1.9, cold sweats, can't think straight etc)?
 
As far as I'm concerned, a hypo is a hypo, i.e. below 4. Some are a lot worse than others but I count them all as hypos. I do refer to the really low ones, where I feel really rotten, as "bad hypos".
 
Anything under 4 is a hypo. To be honest, it's incredibly rare for any hypo to take anything out of my day no matter how low I go, but that's because I've no hypo awareness. That absolutely isn't a reason not to count them! They are still hypos & should be avoided.

The aim is to stay over 4. But don't beat up yourself up if that makes it sound like you are having more hypos than other people, because you are not other people youre you (it's not a competition & there's not a lot of point comparing) and, more importantly, it sounds like you are treating your hypos exactly the right way and they aren't stopping you getting on with life.
 
As above. A low is a low.

For me. There are ocaisions where I can "hover" at 4.2/4.6 & not drop any lower.? not a major panic unless I have to drive.
I can also rest on a low around the mid 3s which in this case (time alowing.) a steady climb with some slower acting carb.
The above has been a study with constant blood monitoring when this occurred to get a handle on the trend.

Of course if the sweaty mess of a two or onesie happens? It gets hit hard & fast... ;)

I've never needed "3rd party" intervention..
 
Some would say the high 3's are fine but I like to stay above 4 at all times so anything below that I count as a hypo, like Jaylee I've been fortunate not to have had any third party assistance in dealing with a hypo but have come quite close on a couple of occasions.

Lowest reading to date was 1.6mmol/l when on twice daily fixed insulin doses.
 
Sometimes I find that if I have been super sedentary all day and don't plan on doing anything much, not reacting unless my blood sugar goes below 3.5 works out fine, especially if I am eating in an hour or two.

One thing to note is that I seem to be v sensitive to changes in my blood glucose, and have never had a 'serious' hypo after the age of 8, so on occasion I feel quite happy cruising at lower levels, but I may be totally wrong in thinking this!
 
isjoberg said:
Sometimes I find that if I have been super sedentary all day and don't plan on doing anything much, not reacting unless my blood sugar goes below 3.5 works out fine, especially if I am eating in an hour or two.
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Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. But just because you aren't rushing to treat it, because you know dinner is on the way and you are perfectly comfortable on the couch, doesn't mean you're not hypo. Cruising low is fine (great even) so long as you aren't doing it at the risk of knocking out your hypo symptoms, because being hypo unaware should not be underestimated as an enormous pain in the **** on a practical level, but also as being rather frightening as I can (& do) walk around at 1.6, 1.3 with absolutely no symptoms which suggests that, should I pass out (which lets face it, isn't that unlikely) my body is not going to respond with a quick glucose dump from the liver because my body just doesn't react to hypos the way you safely want it to. My body has got that way because it thinks that cruising low, a little bit too low, is normal.
 
I have recently been at 1.4 ddnt feel bad, only got scared when I checked the BS, but funny enuf at times I feel terrible at around 3. Something or so with some numbness in my hand, I ve had a lot of hypos but sum time last year I was hospitalized due to hypos, it was a scary experience I must say, I woke up one morning and my right side was all numb, tried to get hold of my testing kit couldn't, instead I rolled over, it was bad, luckily enuf I got hold of my fone to call my husband en told him how I was feeling, it was only me and my 2 yr old daughter in the house, there are stairs from the bedrooms to the kitchen, you can imagine how I was feeling, my hubby called an ambulance while he was driving bck home, so I tried crawling down the stair to go unlock the door for paradmics, and my daughter was having fun crawling with me as well, thnking Mayb we were playing or something . Luckily enuf my hubby got home before an ambulance an he s got his own keys took me to hospital.
 
isjoberg said:
I feel slightly ridiculous asking as I've been diabetic for so long, but I was recently reading a thread where people said they were having 2-5 hypos a week? Are you counting a hypo as an episode of low blood sugar (e.g. 3.5 quick snack and continue as normal) or as something which takes far more out of your day (1.9, cold sweats, can't think straight etc)?
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A hypo, anything lower than 4mmol that's what I deem it as. However, the boundaries can be blurred here, take a blood test on two or three different meters and you'll get up to a 20% difference in readings which would mean less hypos if you used a meter that statistically produces higher results.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
 
I have never need help having a hypo. I treat anything below 4 as a hypo. I do get lots of false hypos, shaky, sweaty hardly able to speak and I'm 5/6,
I also had a 2.9 hypo in bed one night, in house all alone, I struggled to get out of bed, legs felt like lead, and I was walking in syrup. When I made it to kitchen I felt better, another quick test 3.6.
Had a drink of flavoured water, tested 5.0 went to back to bed. Same thing happened next night tested 2.9 stayed in bed, 20 minutes later 5.4.
I love 3c, it keeps me on my toes.
 
isjoberg said:
I feel slightly ridiculous asking as I've been diabetic for so long, but I was recently reading a thread where people said they were having 2-5 hypos a week? Are you counting a hypo as an episode of low blood sugar (e.g. 3.5 quick snack and continue as normal) or as something which takes far more out of your day (1.9, cold sweats, can't think straight etc)?
Click to expand...

It's a hypo if I am below 3 and still going down.

If you habitually run your blood sugar above normal levels (above 7.8) then you will get hypo symptoms at even normal and desirable levels of blood sugar.

I use a pump and test blood sugar up to 10 times a day and still get hypo signs. So I more or less always know where my blood sugar is at any given time, so I am not plagued by hypos. I was extremely freaked out by them before my pump, though!

A real proper physiological hypo is below 2.2 because normies can go down to 2.2 with no ill effects. Type 1s can't risk going that low because they may have active insulin on board so they may continue dropping and pass out. A normie's liver will automatically correct at around 2.2.

When you suddenly feel shakey etc and you're NOT very low, it CAN mean that you're falling very fast, so you need to counteract it fast and sit down for 20 minutes IME.

Sent from my iPhone using DCUK Forum mobile app
 
'normies' - ha love it!

Having good hypo awareness I tend to catch them around the 3.5-3.9 stage, still a hypo I guess but I tend not to look at them like that. I've been down to just under 2 and not really felt any more different and still functioning as 'normal'. Never had to have assistance.

What does become concerning is if you don't really understand why the hypos occurred.
 
Depends on how you feel. If I'm around the 4.0 mmol mark and have mild hypo symptoms I'll correct , otherwise if I feel great I'll leave it, unless of course it's before driving /sport/ running/cycling or bed.
 
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